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Lecture 1: Crafting Order
Taxis and kosmos, both translated as “order,” signify differently in Plato’s dialogs. Taxis orders souls and cities through the giving of orders, which, taking their bearing from what is divine and immutable, prescribe, command, and compel obedience. By contrast, and like the crafts of weaving and architecture analogized to statecraft in Statesman, kosmos gives order by taking its bearing from what is being ordered and the interdependent and dynamic relationships across craftspeople, their materials, and their ends. This lecture develops an account of democratic order by exploring the political and theoretical implications of these differences in Statesman and other dialogs.
Date:
27 January 2026, 17:00
Venue:
Examination Schools, 75-81 High Street OX1 4BG
Venue Details:
South School
Speaker:
Professor Jill Frank (Cornell University)
Organising department:
Faculty of History
Part of:
Carlyle Lectures in the History of Political Thought 2026: The Shape of Democracy
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Belinda Clark
